{"id":2336,"date":"2004-10-14T14:39:21","date_gmt":"2004-10-14T19:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/gazette\/2004\/10\/14\/sci-fi-creature-on-the-loose\/"},"modified":"2022-02-16T12:08:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T18:08:59","slug":"sci-fi-creature-on-the-loose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2004\/10\/14\/sci-fi-creature-on-the-loose\/","title":{"rendered":"Sci-Fi Creature on the Loose!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>While sweeping the leaves and acorns off the front drive yesterday (a wasted effort thanks to an unexpected late afternoon thunderstorm) I spotted a flash of green next to the porch. It was a large praying mantis, not exactly rare in these parts but also not an everyday occurrence.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mantids are cool insects to have around, as they are actually fast enough to eat mosquitos and flies.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I made a mental note to return with my camera, but got distracted for a moment (&#8220;oh look&#8230;a baby squirrel&#8230;&#8221;) and when I did return, the insect was gone.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, if you know mantids (and I know that you do), they&#8217;re slow-moving except when on attack, so I figured he was still in the vicinity. I inspected the adjacent shrubbery for a few minutes and was just about to give up when he came into view on the brick wall behind a bush, climbing towards the roof.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I put the camera into macro mode, on manual focus and took a couple of shots. This one turned out pretty well, I think, considering my overall lack of photographic skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/archives\/mantis.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Praying Mantis\"\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could be wrong, but isn&#8217;t that expression on his &#8220;face&#8221; the same one Brad Pitt reserves for paparazzi?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I noticed that he was climbing in an unusual halting, swaying motion. He would take a step, sway back and forth a couple of times, then take another step or two. I wish I&#8217;d stuck around a bit longer to see what he was up to, because later that afternoon, I noticed this under the eave of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/archives\/mantiseggs.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Praying Mantis egg case\"\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently, that halting gait was a sign of labor contractions (?!). Yep, it turns out that &#8220;he&#8221; is really a &#8220;she,&#8221; as evidenced by the egg case she deposited after I left. I had no idea of their gestation period, but according to <a href=\"http:\/\/ohioline.osu.edu\/hyg-fact\/2000\/2154.html\">this website<\/a>, next spring I should have my own personal herd of teeny mantids. I hope I&#8217;m present when they hatch; those first few moments are so critical to the long-term bonding process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While sweeping the leaves and acorns off the front drive yesterday (a wasted effort thanks to an unexpected late afternoon thunderstorm) I spotted a flash of green next to the porch. It was a large praying mantis, not exactly rare in these parts but also not an everyday occurrence. Mantids are cool insects to have&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2004\/10\/14\/sci-fi-creature-on-the-loose\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sci-Fi Creature on the Loose!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,5,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","category-nature","category-wildlife-inverts","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7431,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions\/7431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}